1998-Upper Level
Second Place (tie)
Tag! You're It! A study of how television commercials directly target the female shopper.
By Kimberlee King
The television commercial is perhaps the most effective means of product marketing and advertisement. Television is present in 99% of American households, and it stays turned on an average of seven hours per day. (www.envirolink.com) The television audience is a varied, widespread audience, ensuring manufacturers that their products' advertisements are reaching all possible customers. Obviously, not all products are produced for all consumers. Market analysts and advertisers must find advertising techniques that can be used in commercials for certain target customers and use those commercials to directly affect the ideal customer for the product. Gender, social, and cultural ideologies are often used to influence the audience. The vast array of possible studies on commercials includes gender differences and influences on the development of children, demographic stereotypes and the effects on society, even the use of dialogue and its importance to the advertisement; however, I've focused on a slightly more narrow path of research and observation. I have narrowed down the comparisons of gender differences to focus only on the female's place in the commercial world and how television advertisements change their approach for different age groups. By observing five basic parts of the commercial-- the camera work, the product advertised, the sound, the actors, and the action- I was able to focus on the advertiser's ideas of the female child, teenager, adult, and elder, and sort similarities, differences, and correlations between the commercials of the different age groups.
The subject of my research was approximately 190 commercials, recorded over a period of one month during daytime, afternoon, and evening television. All of these commercials dealt with female-geared products, used female actresses, and were fairly evenly split between child, teenager, adult, and elderly woman -aimed commercials. As professional research journals and articles were not found, my research is based on "television facts" from the Internet and pure analytical observation and comparison of present-day television commercials.
The age group considered "child" was five to twelve years. Commercials in this group advertised products aimed at children to include cereals, dolls, and toys, as well as products aimed at women, such as laundry detergent, using girls for advertisers. I did find a basic format of the child's commercial, even though the actors and products varied greatly. I found camera action to be slow and fluent. Very few jump cuts and quick zooms were used; instead, individual shots slid from scene to scene very fluidly. The camera would focus on the children, giving equal coverage to each child and each product. This type of action gave the viewer time to clearly see the product, as well as the actress using it.
The child actresses had similarities in almost every commercial. Most notably, they were all female, appearing to be between the ages of six and eight, no matter what toy was being advertised. The girls were outfitted in pinks, blues, yellows, and greens of all shades, but mostly light pastels. Dresses and overalls were prominent as were bows, ponytails, curly blonde hair, petite bodies, and smiles. Many toothy smiles crossed freckled faces, under blue eyes and button noses. These factors made the girls seem very similar, almost ideal. Laughter and giggling dominated the soundtrack, along with squeals of, "She's (a doll) just like me!", "She (a doll) really shivers!", or "These (clothes) are my favorite!" Phrases were short and "happy" and were geared to involve the viewer- as if she were part of the group on TV.
Involving the viewers means attracting them to every part of the commercial. The backgrounds of the children's commercials were usually house or bedroom settings. The pastel color scheme was carried throughout, with inviting furniture, fluffy cushions, and colorful pictures. The sun was usually shining and even if it wasn't, most of these products were for indoor use anyway. The girls' commercials advertised dolls, cooking sets, make-up, and other toys. Dolls of all kinds- from shivering to wetting to eating- were shown "being taken care of" or being dressed up, ready to go out. The ideas behind these gender-specific toys would soon resurface in future sections of my research.
This basic format of the female child's commercial does not apply to every commercial (observed here or not), but it is a compilation of notable similarities in those girls' commercials that classify them as such. Classic examples include the Snuggle fabric softener advertisement. This involves the dialogue of a little girl and a fluffy white teddy bear. They are in a girl's bedroom, complete with white canopy bed and pastel walls, with bright and colorful clothes strewn about. The girl is shown in several clips, each time in a different outfit, claiming her love of colors and softness. The friendly bear laughs along and explains why the clothes stay so pretty and fresh. Phrases such as "Beautiful colors!," "This is my favorite!," and "Thanks, I couldn't have done it without you" made toward the bear are said with a smile and laughter. The child associates fun and prettiness with laundry to target an audience of women and young girls. This commercial used idealized gender-specific roles and the usage of key attractions to that gender to attract a consumer.
Another girl's commercial uses clothes and fashions as the "fun." It introduces the Fashion Avenue line of clothes for Barbie, using that attractive format. A small group of girls are shown giggling and excited over Barbie's latest fashions. They are in a living room with the cushiony sofa and open windows, with gentle colors and music. The fashions are shown on Barbie, with a little kid sister Barbie version too. The children actresses are pretty girls, with endless smiles and laughter. Again, they appear to be around eight years old and share equal camera time with the product.
The techniques used throughout female children's commercials targeted only female children, with the exception of the Snuggle commercial. The colors were easy on the eyes, camera cuts were smooth and paced, actresses were giggling and happy, and the products appealed to specific ages and stages. In sharp contrast was the leap to teenage girls' advertising. While I still focused on the five elements of a commercial, I found many differences between the teen-targeted and the child-targeted advertisement.
Camera shots were most notably different in the commercials aimed at female teenagers. Clips were faster, set to a quick-paced musical beat, and the scenes included more action, more cast, and fewer words. The music seemed to help the camera move around, with quick jump cuts and zoom-ins/zoom-outs. The characters in the commercials were a mixed gender group, all of whom were thin or muscular, tall and attractive. Facial cleanser Noxzema, for instance, pictured two girls driving down a long barren highway in a convertible with two guys following them, presumably for their 'fresh, clean, smooth skin." In fact, cosmetics commercials were the only type geared completely toward young women. The rest of the commercials observed were advertising food, drink, shopping, candy, and microwave cooking. The most notable change from children's to teenager's advertisements was the mixed gender cast. It affected the entire meaning of this commercial type. With teen girl's presence cut so dramatically, the mixed gender characters seemed to target teenagers as a whole, not necessarily the female youth exclusively. This has a tremendous impact on the colors, sound, and background in the commercials. Colors were bright and flashy, appealing to an age group, not a gender. The style of clothes was mostly denim and athletic shoes, with catchy tee shirts and popular hair and makeup styles. The trendiness of the commercials seemed to come directly from the real population of teenagers today.
The background action of the teen commercials was just as wild as the camera shots. Scenes changed rapidly, the outdoors was used heavily, and motion was quick and energized. A Pringles potato chip commercial used different geographical locations- seaside, city-life, a backyard, and street scenes- with an array of people and color. The music kept a quick beat for the commercial to move to and the product was actually used to create some of the "noise." A mall commercial used a female teen with multi-color and multi-sized shopping bags piled in her arms, surrounded by friends and stores. The camera used a photography-like approach, shooting a scene, then quickly framing it into a square and laying it on the screen. The "pictures" piled up faster and faster with the music's tempo.
The swift images of teenagers obviously having fun and using certain products to have that fun were the most prominent of all the commercials in this age group. As noted earlier, cosmetics and health care were the only products to have used more of a main female character; however, those commercials also kept the idea of "this product is making me feel good." Commercials tended to stay away from cooking and cleaning, unless the cooking involved the easy and instant gratification of the microwave. The teenager's commercials were of a completely different format than the children's, in all five categories studied.
The adult women's commercials constituted a slightly larger section of my research sample. I figured this group to be approximately twenty-one to forty years of age. The interest in the group lies in the fact that the structure of these commercials went back to the child's format. Many techniques in color, background, actresses, even product advertised were noted and show amazing similarities to the young girl's commercial format. Coloring and background are most similar. Adult women were found in kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms, and bathrooms (more so than children). Again, the sun was shining, the light, bright, clean colors were inviting and fresh, and the woman was usually portrayed in a state of happiness: her Oreck vacuum slid so gracefully across the dirt, her Oster bread machine turned out perfect loaves every time, and her new IBM computer let her have fun with the kids, type letters to friends, or organize family finances. Most products advertised showed women having fun and being a mom/homemaker at the same time. Women were baking Pillsbury cookies with a young daughter, feeding a family with Zatarain's rice, and staying young to do it all with Oil of Olay. This ideology of woman as mom and housewife was used extensively, just like the idea of child as caretaker, and keeps women in that category already so widely accepted by society.
Camera shots slowly moved from room to room of a house, with a happy woman cleaning it all. Interesting was the similarities in the camera's focus on product and actress, like the child's commercial. The scene stayed on screen long enough to portray the product being used in one context then moved on to other scenes of different uses or different information. The adult women, like the children, also were thin and pretty . The women and children had the following advertisements so similar, they seemed to follow the exact same format. I viewed the commercial for The Crate clothes store for women and immediately thought back to the girl's Barbie commercial mentioned earlier. The child's Barbie Fashion Avenue doll clothes were shown on different models, if you will, Barbies (the idealized body) much like The Crate advertised their fashions on idealized women's bodies. The Crate fashions flashed on screen with smiling models and a variety of colors and mixtures. The female voice over urged the viewer to "Come see what's new at The Crate!" while Barbie's voice over said "look at Barbie's newest line of fashion!" The Crate offered matching accessories and much more. Barbie came with her accessories and even offered matching outfits for little sister Barbie. Camera action was similar for both age groups, as was dialogue, background, and actress (model) portrayal.
The ideologies of prettiness, shapeliness, fashion, and femininity stretched through cleaning and housekeeping commercials to makeup to shopping to dieting. Adult women were huge targets for a variety of products. Most of the ads in this study were for cleansers, cosmetics, clothes, and diet aids; however, there were a few that put the woman in the workplace. She was usually a tired worker or a stressed worker who came home to relax in soap baths or new clothes or in the midst of a family dinner. The little girl who once played dress up and go to work is now actually performing those jobs in these commercials. These ideas skipped right over the teenage generation. Teenagers were eating "cool" foods, attracting each other in "cool" clothes, and going to see "cool" movies. They were having fun and feeling good with their products. While the child and adult female were portrayed having fun, they were taking care of something and accomplishing something. The teenage ads also focused heavily on self-esteem and gender relationships, not the family or female oriented products of the children and adult's advertisements.
The real life span between teenage and old age seems like and eternity. However, many techniques used in the teen advertisements to target that group were carried into the elderly women's ads. The interest here lies in the similarities of teen and elderly women's portrayals in the TV advertisement. Basic ideas of self esteem, feeling good, keeping up with life, and keeping up with one's mate were amazingly dominant for both age groups.
Products advertised, characters in the commercial, and the basic mood or idea of the commercial for elderly women were all comparable to the teen commercial. However, the camera movement, the sound, and overall means of production had characteristics of their own. A Centrum Silver vitamin commercial encompassed these qualities that characterized the older woman's commercial: A woman is shown in different clips, gardening, laughing, and biking with her husband. The male voice-over explains how much energy can by gained from the vitamin and how even though "you" are older, "you" can still have the energy to be active. Thus, "It's a great time to be silver!" The camera shows only four or five scenes, each with an older couple smiling and active. The scenes move slowly, do not jump, and transition smoothly in color and atmosphere. The serene, sunny days portray older women and men having their idea of fun, assisted by the product. This is much like the teenager's pleasure with food or music, clothing or accessories. Both age groups also were portrayed more in mixed gender situations. The women-only commercials in both groups were very limited to feminine products or adult diapers and cosmetics.
Both genders in the elderly women's commercials were very active and energetic. They were portrayed as healthy, with good skin color, few wrinkles, healthy shapes, and constant smiles. Even if the actor or actress was acting sickly, by the end of the commercial, they were back on their feet due to the product's effects. Their attire was interesting in itself- many sweat suits and active wear were used, implying activity and motion. Comparable is the action and motion in teen commercials. In an Ensure commercial, two women are laughing and talking about how they are "being taken care of" by the vitamin-filled drink. This is a change from their childhood years of taking care of dolls and their adult years of taking care of the family, but a similarity to being energized and rejuvenated as a teenager. Light piano music plays in the background, an ideal music form for elderly people, in contrast to the ideology of teenagers jamming with rock and roll.
Because target marketing has such a defined consumer in mind, there are many parts of the commercials in all categories that were different, like, the products advertised. Obviously, products themselves are manufactured for certain consumers so they will have their own selling points that must be used. Small children will not be interested in wearing support hose and elderly women will not likely play with a play house of dolls. Likewise, a teenager would probably not be attracted to a clothes store using fifty-plus-year-old models to advertise. Some differentiation between ages is necessary; however, I found the correlations mentioned between the very young girls and the adult women and between teenagers and elderly women interesting. The similar commercial formats and semiotics of each ad tend to establish ideologies for each age group- child as caring, sweet and gentle, teens as trendy, energized, and independent, women as homemaker and caretaker, and elderly woman as independent and active. Do these similarities and ideologies send out messages to the viewer? Are advertisers conscious of creating these similarities? And do these techniques appeal to each group effectively? For example, if elderly women were portrayed more as adult women- responsible, caring, working people- would that change the way the advertisement is perceived? If a children's commercial used more mixed gender characters, would that effect toy sales for both genders? And if teenager's commercials used a more timid, responsible attitude, would teens still buy the potato chips or clothes and still feel accepted by their peers and themselves? As this paper is based on observation and intended only to recognize the commercial formats, these questions are open to much research and discussion. However, the average televison viewer will be affected by these commercials in his or her own way no matter how much research has been recorded or how many experiments have been performed.
As age and gender alike have been established as qualifiers for using a certain product or behaving a certain way, I feel it is important that some connections are made as well within those demographics. Advertisers have created those connections, making age groups within the gender associable to each other. The commercials seem to act as tools to train young girls and women to be homemakers and stay in their traditional societal role, while teenagers and older women are being conditioned to break out of that role. Whether those connections- children and women as homemakers and teens and elderly women as energetic fun-seekers- are influential or not will be determined by the consumer and his or her pocketbook and the advertiser's continued ability to hit that target.
RESOURCES
TV Facts from http://www.envirolink.org/issues/system/media/tv_facts.html
Paper format after Jacquelyn Bradway http://www.wcsu.ctstateu.edu/%7Emccarney/acad/bradway.html
VCR Recordings from NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX
Other Ideas and Information from The Marketing Concept http://ctl.augie.edu/dept/coth/coth380/advert/WHEEL.HTML
Gender Differences in Communication http://cpsr.org/cpsr/gender/mulvaney.txt
TV Programs Have Underlying Economic Purposes http://www.widmeyer.com/tv/viewing/link11.htm
Content Analysis of Gender Differences in Children's Advertising http://www.aber.ac.uk/%7Eednwww/Resdeg/merris07.html
A Definition of Advertising http://www.wsu.edu
(Kimberlee Anne King--I was born into a military family on August 27, 1976. I am a Southerner— Beaufort, SC is my hometown, but I have called Richmond Hill, GA home for the last four years. I am an English/Communications major at Armstrong and will graduate in December this year. Right now, I am a market research assistant at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation; however, I would like to eventually find myself in corporate communications and public relations. When I am not working or studying, I enjoy spending time with my husband Matthew, cooking, reading, painting, traveling, and shopping for antiques.)